Speaker 1: This is Alec Baldwin and you were listening to Here's
Speaker 1: the Thing. The Human Centipede, the only movie Roger Ebert
Speaker 1: ever refused to give a star rating too it is
Speaker 1: what it is. He concluded. It was the talk of
Speaker 1: the festival circuit in two thousand nine, the talk at dinner,
Speaker 1: not panel discussions. It was too cruel, too cracked. High
Speaker 1: school boys were emailing each other gross out clips. Many
Speaker 1: reviewers wouldn't even recount the premise I will so feel
Speaker 1: free to skip ahead about one minute. The movie, the
Speaker 1: first of a trilogy, starts with the familiar horror trope
Speaker 1: of two pretty young women getting a flat tire at
Speaker 1: night in the rain in the woods. I think we're
Speaker 1: supposed to turn. I thought you know exactly where we were?
Speaker 1: What was that? They end up in the home of
Speaker 1: a demented surgeon. Then the familiar tropes end because Dr Hyder,
Speaker 1: once a get this respected separator of Siamese Twins, has
Speaker 1: a late career goal. It's to kidnap three people, sever
Speaker 1: their knees and so their bodies together mouth to anus,
Speaker 1: creating one long digestive system. It's a bleak movie, terrifying
Speaker 1: and bloody, Deeter Laser's suave doctor Hyder is mangel alike
Speaker 1: in his dispassionate cruelty, and the victims play their roles
Speaker 1: with no wink or nod to break the tension, but
Speaker 1: shock wears off. The movie that Roger Ebert refused to
Speaker 1: review is now firmly a part of the American popular culture.
Speaker 1: We have a long treasured tradition here on our show,
Speaker 1: which celebrates the Festival of Lights. It's time once again
Speaker 1: for our annual lighting of the human centipede Menorah humans.
Speaker 1: The originator of the human centipede is improbably a charming
Speaker 1: panama hat wearing young Dutchman named Tom six. He had
Speaker 1: just arrived from Amsterdam and brought with him his longtime
Speaker 1: business partner who's also his sister. We think, how do
Speaker 1: you pronounce your first time again? Ilona? Okay, So we've
Speaker 1: all met before. Because I was in the unique club
Speaker 1: of people who watched your magnum Opus and was just
Speaker 1: knocked out. I thought, my god, I've got to meet
Speaker 1: the guy that made this movie. And you were so cheery,
Speaker 1: you were like it. We was so kind of animated
Speaker 1: and boyish in a way I was prepared for. You
Speaker 1: were like Ronnie Howard, Hello Alec, I am Tom and
Speaker 1: this is my sister Elona, and she was like hello Alec.
Speaker 1: There was no black clothes and like spider webs in
Speaker 1: the corner. The dangerous thing right You said to me
Speaker 1: and said we are going to redefine evil? He said exactly,
Speaker 1: And I got a chill. I thought, Man, if anybody's
Speaker 1: going to redefined evil, it's you. What is horror to
Speaker 1: you in film? In filmmaking to me is when you're
Speaker 1: in a situation, you're attached to a to an asshole,
Speaker 1: You're in a situation where you can't leave, and it's
Speaker 1: worse than death. You want to die but you can't. Absolutely,
Speaker 1: where did you first get the idea? It's very simple,
Speaker 1: wasn't your idea? Yeah? Definitely. I was watching television and
Speaker 1: there was a child molester on and he did the
Speaker 1: most terrible things to two children and he got a
Speaker 1: very low sentence because of a mistake they made. And
Speaker 1: I was angry, and I said, day suit, stitch his
Speaker 1: mouth to the anus of a fat truck on me,
Speaker 1: because that would be a great bunch something good. Out
Speaker 1: of a desire for justice absolutely emerged, this twisted idea
Speaker 1: of your film. Absolutely, you said this man should have
Speaker 1: his mouth sown to the of the famous trunk driver,
Speaker 1: on his hands and knees because death would be in
Speaker 1: sever his knee, like absolute, we can't run away. Absolutely,
Speaker 1: And then I immediately my then girlfriend I put it
Speaker 1: on their hands and knees and I took a picture
Speaker 1: and then I photoshopped her behind each other. And I
Speaker 1: thought that a great idea for a movie. This looks amazing,
Speaker 1: But at the same time, it's so incredibly horrifying the
Speaker 1: idea that you have to without saying, well, I wouldn't
Speaker 1: say swallow. You're part of a chance of a digestive
Speaker 1: chain that happened. It's hideous. But in your movie, uh,
Speaker 1: this is not an act of justice. We're not taking
Speaker 1: the child molester. I did it show him right your
Speaker 1: first film. There was no justice there, and I thought
Speaker 1: I need one of those old villains as as the
Speaker 1: finger stign doctor almost created like a Peter Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 1: And can you imagine he did over seventy films and
Speaker 1: the guy was never cast as a horror villain never
Speaker 1: never what did he play? Oh? Good, guys, it's great.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry. I'm really going to struggle to keep a
Speaker 1: straight face with you. I can't believe a funny meeting
Speaker 1: you to roll our conversations. But so before you made
Speaker 1: this movie, before you saw this horrible child lester who
Speaker 1: was not meeted out a proper sentence for as your concern,
Speaker 1: what was your childhood look in terms of film going.
Speaker 1: I already loved horror films. I went to the video
Speaker 1: stores and I my parents let me rent all those
Speaker 1: horrible were your favorite films? Could Joe from Stephen King,
Speaker 1: all those zombie films? Everything? I swallowed it up, and
Speaker 1: I have this really big imagination. So when I was
Speaker 1: a little kid, I said, I want to be about
Speaker 1: to make films when I grow up. You did, Yeah,
Speaker 1: definitely make films. A little camera When you said my
Speaker 1: grandfather he came was the first film you mad? It
Speaker 1: was a horror film, an alien caming out of a
Speaker 1: guy's stomach. Had you seen the movie? Yeah, you're just
Speaker 1: kind of taking that. You're riffing on playing with her character. Definitely,
Speaker 1: so you had did you what kind of described to
Speaker 1: us if you can in the most simple terms, But
Speaker 1: how the other those effects work? Did you have like
Speaker 1: a a mannequin that you had I I built those
Speaker 1: puppets and the guy with a hand in it coming out.
Speaker 1: I built his body and all, of course in a
Speaker 1: simple way, but it already works. So what did he
Speaker 1: do for a living in? How did he die? What
Speaker 1: was the setting? Was it a space station something or
Speaker 1: something like that. I built my room into this giant student. Yeah,
Speaker 1: very low but no, but very a little small guy
Speaker 1: at twelve or twelve yeah, yeah, yeah, but no tour
Speaker 1: that is already maybe. And then where do you go
Speaker 1: to college? I went to, uh, the New York Film Academy.
Speaker 1: Strangely enough, I did a course here and you came here? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I came here? How old? Eighteen? And I just want
Speaker 1: did your parents something like kids always want to make films?
Speaker 1: Let's send him to New York because here I still
Speaker 1: remember there were guys from the film industry talking about
Speaker 1: film and making film and it got me so in enthusiastic.
Speaker 1: And then it was only two months and then I
Speaker 1: got back to Holland and I was hired as a
Speaker 1: television director for the first Big Brother show in Holland,
Speaker 1: and I turned out I was very good at it.
Speaker 1: So that was the first Big Brother in the world.
Speaker 1: So then John them all, the big owner of a
Speaker 1: Big Brother. He thought, yeah, you're one of our best directors,
Speaker 1: so he sent me here. You tell American directors taking
Speaker 1: the Big Brother program obviously, which they do quite often.
Speaker 1: They do with Saturday Night Live. They do all those
Speaker 1: types of programs and they bring them to other countries
Speaker 1: and set them up in that country. So I was
Speaker 1: going well in television, but I always wanted to make films.
Speaker 1: So then I my sister, who was in law school,
Speaker 1: she quit god and then we started the six Entertainment
Speaker 1: Company and we made three films in Holland Dutch language films. Now.
Speaker 1: One is the Two Women are Trapped in the Department Store. Yes, yes, absolutely,
Speaker 1: films like Honey's. It's like Honey, Yeah, children's movie for
Speaker 1: a little so it's Sweden innocent, okay. So so that's
Speaker 1: the first film. The second film, the first one was
Speaker 1: in the gay disco Amsterdam. In that time, I had
Speaker 1: a very famous gay scene all over the world, and
Speaker 1: I had a couple of friends who were gazed, and
Speaker 1: they told me those horrendous stories about pill popping and
Speaker 1: all the things you do in Amsterdam. But when you're paid,
Speaker 1: popper's wild. So I made a film about that, and
Speaker 1: then I moved on to Honey's and then I went
Speaker 1: on to make I Love Drees and it's very cool.
Speaker 1: It's about a famous Dutch singer. He plays himself and
Speaker 1: he's abducted by two very fat people who live in
Speaker 1: a trailer park. And the woman is his biggest fan.
Speaker 1: She doors the singer, so they abducted him like misery. Absolutely,
Speaker 1: but it gets worse. She wants to have his baby,
Speaker 1: so he had natural Yeah, he has to stay in
Speaker 1: the trailer until she becomes pregnant. So the husband just
Speaker 1: isn't capable of of of reproducer. Absolutely, so you have
Speaker 1: to bring in a stud sort of speed. Definitely, And
Speaker 1: this famous he's a famous musician. Seeing in real life
Speaker 1: is a real sense. He's a handsome guy. Yeah, there's
Speaker 1: a good looking guy. Yes, what is his name? Roofings? Roofing. Yes.
Speaker 1: At the time he made the movie, how old was seeing?
Speaker 1: He was about forty I think, so he's still a
Speaker 1: little bit of tread on the tire. He wasn't completely
Speaker 1: out of the business. He was still young enough to
Speaker 1: have delight his fans. How do you get him to
Speaker 1: come and do the movie where he has to sire
Speaker 1: the child with the more beast woman. He thought it
Speaker 1: was for a candid camera show. This is not real,
Speaker 1: and I said, no, it's real. And he had to
Speaker 1: think about it for one day. What was it about him?
Speaker 1: He thought he was game? He had exactly that guy's Yeah,
Speaker 1: how do you call it? He thinks he's a stud.
Speaker 1: He does all the training and he he spit absolutely. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So I thought this was extra horrible if he has
Speaker 1: to make love to this and and do you see
Speaker 1: scenes where they're making love? Definitely? Oh my god, definitely.
Speaker 1: How long didn't take to shoot that movie? Three weeks?
Speaker 1: Three weeks? You're shooting that movie? And how do you
Speaker 1: get the money for the film? Like when you're walking
Speaker 1: into rooms and we're going to get to this, especially
Speaker 1: with the Centipede series, Um, how do you get people
Speaker 1: to give you money? And then when you get to
Speaker 1: the distribution part, what do you say to them? Well,
Speaker 1: Ilona as a genius aid bring in money. So she
Speaker 1: rings the whole We have this famous magazine in Holland
Speaker 1: which called the Quotes, and all the rich people are
Speaker 1: in there. So she just goes through the cellphone. Nine
Speaker 1: of the ten people, they say you're an idiot funk off.
Speaker 1: But like one, there's one people that say no, but
Speaker 1: there's one who just can't say no to Elona. Absolutely.
Speaker 1: Then I tell the story and they are home and
Speaker 1: they want to be in the film business. Was the
Speaker 1: film successful, Yeah, on a on a Dutch scale, it's
Speaker 1: a very small Does the film make money, yes, but
Speaker 1: not like you're I don't. I don't. I don't expect
Speaker 1: that because that's I mean, you and I both know
Speaker 1: that's you know, mission impossible. It's money, but the unless
Speaker 1: you are a mission impossible. But the um the investors
Speaker 1: got their money back. So you did the first two?
Speaker 1: So was the third the third one? Yes? Right, so
Speaker 1: you did. The first one was called gay in Amsterdam,
Speaker 1: Gay Amsterdam. You don't really wander too much from the theme.
Speaker 1: It's Gay in Amsterdam, honeyes honeys, which is loaded with
Speaker 1: double long tongue, and then uh, and then I love
Speaker 1: which one performed the best at the box? Yeah? Pretty much?
Speaker 1: Say they made money. Yeah, but I like the third one.
Speaker 1: I love the absolutely the best. That's your favor. That's
Speaker 1: the black humor. It's dark, it's it's getting my way.
Speaker 1: What were some of the difficulties for you in handling
Speaker 1: the cast and what you're getting people to do. These
Speaker 1: very compromising very I mean, it's one thing to say
Speaker 1: that someone's going to do a sex scene with a
Speaker 1: morbidly obest woman and you're kind of sending up that
Speaker 1: as horror. But the actress who was hired to play
Speaker 1: that part, did you have to be like overly sensitive
Speaker 1: to how she was treated and how she felt. You
Speaker 1: have to be charming always to actors and new situations
Speaker 1: like that, and you are charming. Let's thank you. And yeah,
Speaker 1: the lady I told her how, yeah, how the scene
Speaker 1: was going to be, and she she trusted me so much,
Speaker 1: so she said, let's do it. I don't have any
Speaker 1: fear or whatever. Let's do it. And and the guy
Speaker 1: was a little bit hesitate, but I said, commandreies, you
Speaker 1: have to do this. Your fans. They're not really having
Speaker 1: not really but looks very, looks very. I'm gonna go
Speaker 1: home and watch it tonight after my wife falls asleep.
Speaker 1: That's musically what I call a midnight showing in my house. Okay,
Speaker 1: but it's just it's just such a delight to finally
Speaker 1: meet when you come back to New York again. We're
Speaker 1: here for very briefly. Yeah, fly back tomorrow. But when
Speaker 1: you come back again as soon as possible, we need
Speaker 1: to talk about a movie. We need to do a
Speaker 1: movie together. Let's do that. So the movies make money,
Speaker 1: and you reward your investors. They get some kind of uh,
Speaker 1: you pay them, they make some kind of a profit.
Speaker 1: So after um gay in Amsterdam, honeys and I love Drees,
Speaker 1: what's the next movie? The first human centipede? Right, the
Speaker 1: first human cent and you get the idea from the
Speaker 1: guy who gets the low And where did you do
Speaker 1: your casting for the film here in New York? Because
Speaker 1: I wanted to have the lead actresses, the two girls
Speaker 1: who undergo the procedure. Elone and I went here to
Speaker 1: New York and we had like like fifty or sixty
Speaker 1: women coming in. Oh, young, young, attracted girls. And I
Speaker 1: told them the premise and showed them the drawings I made,
Speaker 1: and Night out of ten said your European crazy. They
Speaker 1: were angry at me. They didn't know what it was
Speaker 1: about when they came in. No, you kept it under round,
Speaker 1: absolutely right, I said, the European horror film. You said,
Speaker 1: come in, let me explain it to you for absolutely,
Speaker 1: because anything managers if you do it on the email
Speaker 1: and you explain it, they won't come. They won't come
Speaker 1: to the auditions. So the smart sponts they stayed. They
Speaker 1: wanted to hear more. And then you put them on
Speaker 1: their hands and knees and a lot of them leave.
Speaker 1: They think that's the next round round. Then then how
Speaker 1: many remained on their knees and said, okay, let's go fro,
Speaker 1: Like like five left and we chose two in the end.
Speaker 1: Two were absolutely troops. You have to be right. So yeah,
Speaker 1: so they're artists, they're committed to can you imagine, right?
Speaker 1: So they just wanted to work with Deeter, you know,
Speaker 1: once you show them deaters real they were like, I
Speaker 1: want to be in a movie with. So now, both
Speaker 1: these women are very pretty and very fit and very
Speaker 1: kind of sexy young ladies in in the business. And
Speaker 1: so when you're shooting the film, what's the first day
Speaker 1: of shooting? Do you could do ease them into it
Speaker 1: or do you throw them right into the icy cold water. No,
Speaker 1: we slowly started with the car in the forest and
Speaker 1: stuff and them getting the flat tire going through the house.
Speaker 1: So we slowly build up for them. Yeah, yeah, because
Speaker 1: it's it was too much. You can imagine. They had
Speaker 1: really really definitely, and we gave them massages when they're
Speaker 1: on their hands and knees, and we we really treated
Speaker 1: them really well. What exactly did you have to do
Speaker 1: hygiene wise to make everybody comfortable about sticking their face
Speaker 1: and the butt of the person. Yeah, they're a little
Speaker 1: afraid they didn't fart or something. You have to be
Speaker 1: very careful with that you eat. Yeah, they have there's
Speaker 1: very thin latex between their mouths and the butts, so
Speaker 1: it's there's something in between, of course, but it's close.
Speaker 1: It's yeah, it's minimals. Yeah, it's minimal, because otherwise it
Speaker 1: would look fake. Yeah, So they showered very well, and
Speaker 1: they and then they would do these things and they
Speaker 1: were on their hands and knees in the formation of
Speaker 1: the human centipede for how many hours a day? Would
Speaker 1: you say? Not very long. It's like we shoot like
Speaker 1: ten minutes and then they break, take a break, take
Speaker 1: a break, and then we put them back again. How
Speaker 1: many days were they in the centipede mode? Almost four
Speaker 1: weeks on their hands and knees in the centipede. No,
Speaker 1: that's three weeks. I think three weeks of that sounds
Speaker 1: like hell yeah, it's three days would be more than
Speaker 1: I could bear it. When we do are moving together,
Speaker 1: no more than three days of centipede type of not
Speaker 1: going to happen. So when the time comes to distribute
Speaker 1: the film, yes, you get minimal distribution. Correct. I have
Speaker 1: seen it's a by the Ye know who was the
Speaker 1: executive dealt with it? I have? I have it? Is
Speaker 1: Jonathan Sei. Yeah, Jonathan Yeah, wonderful filmmaker, film executive, brave
Speaker 1: guys like you. He loved he got it. Absolutely. It
Speaker 1: was rageous and entertaining. What happened. We showed the first
Speaker 1: center Pete at the Fright Fest and in London, Yeah,
Speaker 1: and it exploded there really all the people who started
Speaker 1: talking about it. And then Fantastic Fest in America they
Speaker 1: call There's in Austin, Texas and they played it there
Speaker 1: and there it exploded again. And then Jonathan came to us,
Speaker 1: I have to have that film. I have absolutely. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And you made some money, Yeah it made money? Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 1: You you you distribute the movie and the movie played
Speaker 1: in theaters for how long and in what parts of
Speaker 1: the world because it was banned in many places. In
Speaker 1: Germany it is banned in in England it's It's got
Speaker 1: and stuff. A lot lot of banned in Germany. Yeah yeah,
Speaker 1: definitely Foreters Family that they didn't have to be put
Speaker 1: through that, you know. And New Zealand Part two is banned.
Speaker 1: So there's a lot of banning going around. But where
Speaker 1: did the film do well? Where where's the audience? America
Speaker 1: and a lot of Tom's six movies in England, America
Speaker 1: and Japan Japan is really they crave a good, nasty,
Speaker 1: definitely horror movie, and they react very differently when they
Speaker 1: see the film. They cheer, They are so happy they cheering.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, and they immediately went on their hands and
Speaker 1: knees and they wanted me to be play Deeter and
Speaker 1: Crazy and I love it. They do these like tributes
Speaker 1: Rocky Horror. Oh yeah, they do. They get to they
Speaker 1: form humans sent to be chains outside the theater and
Speaker 1: here here as well. In Americans, how David's pate he
Speaker 1: made his Halloween costume with Sarah Silverman in the back.
Speaker 1: I believe I saw pictures of that coming along in America.
Speaker 1: It's pretty It's on the Conan O'Brien show. I saw
Speaker 1: it now, Um, the movie is distributed. What year The
Speaker 1: Humans Sent come out? In two thousand ten? It came out,
Speaker 1: not that long ago, two centen It comes out and
Speaker 1: you get these scathing reviews and people say you're insane,
Speaker 1: lots of that. Did you really oh yeah, yeah, lots
Speaker 1: of that. Did you need to like beefed up security
Speaker 1: in your life? With part two? When we had the
Speaker 1: premiere in America, we had a guy that's because we
Speaker 1: got pictures of guys with guns and they say, you're
Speaker 1: worse than Satan. We're gonna share Humans in Part two
Speaker 1: in America? Where was that? Austin, Texas? Austin, Yes, that
Speaker 1: was a big event. Pretty cool. What was the theatrical
Speaker 1: run to run for a few weeks? A few weeks?
Speaker 1: Definitely go on your streaming online. Where did you make
Speaker 1: most of you? Just so people understand how when a
Speaker 1: movie like this, which is very potent and very ugly,
Speaker 1: when torture porn, as you know, is that it's been
Speaker 1: used to describe a lot of your work. And I
Speaker 1: want to get to that in a second. When the
Speaker 1: movie is is get such a strong reaction, I'm assuming
Speaker 1: it's in and out of the theater relatively quickly. Yeah, definitely,
Speaker 1: And you're online and yeah, po d that works the best.
Speaker 1: And is that where you made your money? Yes, and
Speaker 1: the movie was a success. I nancial definitely decided to
Speaker 1: do the second one. Yes, the second one. Let's just say,
Speaker 1: I think it's a masterpiece. It's a work of art
Speaker 1: because it's just this idea that I've never in my life.
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm sitting there going, oh God, no, I
Speaker 1: mean we're watching the opening scenes. A man who works
Speaker 1: in a parking garage, who is a lonely, miserable, misshapen,
Speaker 1: kind of cloven hooved man is there watching your original
Speaker 1: film on his computer and getting the idea that he's
Speaker 1: going to recreate the movie. So in the movie part two,
Speaker 1: you summon back the actresses. Which of the two actresses
Speaker 1: was the one that came back? Jenny? She came back
Speaker 1: because he calls her and says, we're gonna go another round.
Speaker 1: We're gonna do the sequel. What was the phone call
Speaker 1: like for you to call Ashland to come back for round?
Speaker 1: It was it easy at those very easy. I skype
Speaker 1: with her and she was so overwhelmed with the success
Speaker 1: of part one. She yeah, she got. Yeah, she was
Speaker 1: a star in her in the horror Yeah, definitely. So
Speaker 1: I said, actually we have to part two. And then
Speaker 1: I told her what it was about, and she had
Speaker 1: to swallow a few times because it's way worse than
Speaker 1: in part one. There's really a picnic in the park
Speaker 1: part one. But she's such a trooper she said let's
Speaker 1: do it, and she never complained. And if you see
Speaker 1: what happens to her in the film, yeah stuff. Who's
Speaker 1: the actress the kind of crow like woman that plays
Speaker 1: Martin's mother, Vivian Britton, that's in a Vivian Britain is
Speaker 1: the actress Brita Britton, a British actress, And I love her,
Speaker 1: very old lady but wonderful because when he gets out
Speaker 1: of the bed and his belly sticking out like a
Speaker 1: globe and he's in his bed as moldy bed, yeah,
Speaker 1: and the mother's like, you know, uh, you wonder what's
Speaker 1: kept the mother from like just poisoning him or just
Speaker 1: shooting him in his sleep and getting rid of him.
Speaker 1: It's all so sad, you know what I mean? Who's
Speaker 1: your production designer? Who who creates the tableau that is
Speaker 1: Martin's bedroom? I do that myself. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: Martin would live. Yeah, definitely. We go out for a
Speaker 1: location hunting and I think this is the place and
Speaker 1: it's a basement apart. Definitely. Yeah, I'm shitty dread and yeah,
Speaker 1: yeah I love that. Yeah, he's popping pimples and it's
Speaker 1: all over the bed too, every kind of body fluid
Speaker 1: is oozed into the sheets. Yeah. I like your mind. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, it's just you can si see. It's all there.
Speaker 1: You know. That's the thing with your movies, is it's
Speaker 1: all there. You know. Theater's apartment is very neat and gleaming.
Speaker 1: It's not the castle but like wet stones, and it's
Speaker 1: like this very gleaming modern edifice, I mean and hum
Speaker 1: And when you go down to the laboratory, it's very
Speaker 1: gleaming and neat and clean. That was your idea, absolutely. Yeah.
Speaker 1: What was the doctor's name in the first film, Doctor Hyder,
Speaker 1: And it's in a combination of two real Nazi doctors
Speaker 1: from the Second World. Yeah, that's it's it's based on
Speaker 1: the with the twins idea, but it's Dr Him and
Speaker 1: Dr Richter, and I made it into Hyder and Richter
Speaker 1: become hight what did Hyman Richter dore their camp doctors
Speaker 1: as well. But there's a stop with that. We don't
Speaker 1: want We don't want to go too far. Key to
Speaker 1: the darkness in any horror film is the editing, the claustrophobia,
Speaker 1: the sense that something someone is lurking just off camera.
Speaker 1: Editing can make a mediocre film good and a good
Speaker 1: film great. One of the best film editors in the business,
Speaker 1: as Martin Scor says, he's longtime collaborator Thelma Schoonmaker. The
Speaker 1: thing is, you see that we create that violence in
Speaker 1: the editing room. There's no way that DeNiro could take
Speaker 1: an actual punch all the times you see it in
Speaker 1: in the film, blood and saliva would spray off it.
Speaker 1: But it's not actually violent. When I get it, I
Speaker 1: make it violent. Here the rest of our conversation in
Speaker 1: our archive at Here's the Thing dot org. When we
Speaker 1: come back. Humans Centipede creator Tom six explains what he's
Speaker 1: doing next. Where the Human Centipede trilogy is body Horror.
Speaker 1: Six says his upcoming film deals in pure psychological horror.
Speaker 1: This is Alec Baldwin and you were listening to Here's
Speaker 1: the Thing. If you watch the first two installments of
Speaker 1: the Human Centipede series. The first thing you notice is
Speaker 1: the stark contrast between the two villains, Deeter Laser, the
Speaker 1: domineering aristocrat, versus the Misshape and miscreant Lawrence are Harvey.
Speaker 1: Director Tom six explains the difference is that Deeter he
Speaker 1: had like a huge career. He did seventy films and
Speaker 1: he's a big serious actor, stage actor as well. What
Speaker 1: about the actor that played Martin again, what's his name,
Speaker 1: Lawrence are Harvey. He did like very little things. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he did donut commercials, exactly very small things. You mentioned
Speaker 1: in an interview that I watched, when you said you
Speaker 1: wanted to cast someone who was the opposite of Deeter.
Speaker 1: The doctor in the original film is this gleaming kind
Speaker 1: of an intense genius, and he's this very eccentric and
Speaker 1: even aristocratic figure. And Martin is just like, you know,
Speaker 1: like somebody expectorated on the ground. He's just a blob
Speaker 1: of the disease written blob. But that guy, I when
Speaker 1: I saw his appearance, I said, he doesn't have to
Speaker 1: speak in the film, it's just his his presence is
Speaker 1: so strong. Well, Deeter is very trained in performing with words,
Speaker 1: and theater, very commanding, very powerful. He should play fun
Speaker 1: carry on in the film. He looks like he reminded
Speaker 1: me of fun carry on. So, um, what did you
Speaker 1: cut out of the film that you didn't put in
Speaker 1: that was even? Is there a point where even you
Speaker 1: sit there and go, we have to lose that it's
Speaker 1: just too much. I put everything in, everything that comes
Speaker 1: to my mind, and I put in the script is
Speaker 1: in it, and you shoot it, and then you cut it,
Speaker 1: and that's in the film. Yeah. Yeah, I shoot very economic,
Speaker 1: so I should exactly what I want because there's no
Speaker 1: scene you shoot when you say, oh my god, Elona,
Speaker 1: even I have gone too far. I like in Part two,
Speaker 1: the famous rape scene and the guy puts the barber
Speaker 1: around his penis and then rapes his centipede. That's the
Speaker 1: most groups of part in the film. And we were
Speaker 1: shooting that and half of the crew they went crying
Speaker 1: and they walked away, and I was like cheering from
Speaker 1: this looked brilliant. It's like a symphony. It's almost yeah.
Speaker 1: And then I looked behind me and all those people
Speaker 1: were gone. They left, they left. He couldn't they couldn't
Speaker 1: take it. Wow, And I what was it like with
Speaker 1: the crew, Like, did you feel the crew respected you
Speaker 1: and the way? Remember, not all directors are respected. The
Speaker 1: movie could be you know, a love story or a
Speaker 1: musical comedy or whatever. It doesn't matter. Not all directors
Speaker 1: are respected by the crew. Trust me, But did you
Speaker 1: find that your crew did respect you? Sit there and
Speaker 1: go behind your back? They go. They probably have said it,
Speaker 1: but maybe because of the of the charm. Maybe, and
Speaker 1: because I'm entusiastic, I bring them into the story and
Speaker 1: the adventure and I tell them they know exactly what's
Speaker 1: well contagious. Yeah, maybe, and they they stand there and
Speaker 1: they see it and they laugh. For example, part one,
Speaker 1: we had a scene where the centerpieces shipping for the
Speaker 1: first time and he had feet or feeder, and he
Speaker 1: filmed that house in a suburban area where other houses
Speaker 1: were around it and people were hanging out of their
Speaker 1: windows looking at this those scenes and were horrified. But
Speaker 1: the crew was laughing. Everybody was laughing. Yeah, you can
Speaker 1: imagine a situation like that, Yeah, well kind of. I
Speaker 1: completely Now. So number three I have not seen, and
Speaker 1: I do think I should see it, definitely, because I
Speaker 1: was told everybody that was the weakest of the three
Speaker 1: I don't. I don't think obviously, because this is where
Speaker 1: the couple of analogy goes even further, because obviously this
Speaker 1: Godfather one, then Godfather too goes to another level that
Speaker 1: a lot of people thought Godfather three was a let down.
Speaker 1: It's the best one of all three. It's a satire.
Speaker 1: I go back to my original punishment idea, and it's
Speaker 1: for the prisons. So I I translated to a real
Speaker 1: situation where if you do something horrible, you go to
Speaker 1: a prison, you're sewn into a human centipede, and according
Speaker 1: to your sentence, you put in it for a week
Speaker 1: or maybe twenty years. So the centipede thing is the
Speaker 1: sentence you've been talking about. This is getting back to
Speaker 1: definitely the original idea. I think crime rates will drop
Speaker 1: like pants in a whorehouse because nobody wants to be
Speaker 1: in a human centipede. Yeah, I think so. I don't
Speaker 1: think they live, actually, I think I think. I think
Speaker 1: medically you die and be oh no. I I consulted
Speaker 1: a real doctor in Holland, and he made He said
Speaker 1: that people were to pass their waste product into your
Speaker 1: mouth and into your bloodstream and your into your digester truck.
Speaker 1: You would live. Yeah, if they get vitamin injections and fluids,
Speaker 1: they could live like that for a long time because
Speaker 1: it's not how long, it's not for a long long time.
Speaker 1: If you get the right long enough to survive their sentence. Definitely,
Speaker 1: because the thesis is not attacked by outside bacteria, right,
Speaker 1: because it's contained. Yeah, it's stays in one constantly. Absolutely, Yeah,
Speaker 1: you're given this a lot of thought. Oh yeah, the
Speaker 1: doctor helped me for a very easet. You had gastro
Speaker 1: entrologists consulting you, a real surgeon in Holland who wanted
Speaker 1: to stay anonymous, but he made this very detailed operation
Speaker 1: report and he was on the set as well helping.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, it's pretty cool. That's that's why. Well,
Speaker 1: cool is not the word. I wank nobody movie you.
Speaker 1: I mean, I want you to you you're you're You're
Speaker 1: free to say whatever you want to say. How long
Speaker 1: did that take to shoot? That was about six weeks.
Speaker 1: That was our longer shoot because we had like hundreds
Speaker 1: of extract prison. Yeah, big prison. And of course you
Speaker 1: had a star in the lead role. Definitely, Eric Eric Roberts.
Speaker 1: So Eric Roberts is one of the great movie actors.
Speaker 1: In the past several years, and I worked with him
Speaker 1: once on a film. How do you get Eric Roberts
Speaker 1: to come and do the third installment? We had a
Speaker 1: skype conversation with him. He loved the first like you
Speaker 1: would love the first. Yeah, he got he got it.
Speaker 1: I said, yeah, you want to be in part three?
Speaker 1: And I said, if I don't have to be on
Speaker 1: my hands and knees centipede me, No, exactly, Yeah, And
Speaker 1: he did it. And he was governor of the state,
Speaker 1: so he's his prison is in the Is he the
Speaker 1: one that comes up to the idea of centipeding everybody? No,
Speaker 1: that's the accountant of the warden comes and who plays that?
Speaker 1: That's Lawrence R. Harvey. I brought back Lawrence Harvey came back. Yeah,
Speaker 1: then I got to see this Harvey and Deeter is
Speaker 1: in it. Deeter is the warden and Lawrence R. Harvey
Speaker 1: is his assistant. That's like getting Marlon Brando and denro
Speaker 1: to be in Part three together. That's true in totally
Speaker 1: different roles, in totally different roles, completely on and and
Speaker 1: Eric plays the governor of the state. And what is
Speaker 1: his what's his arc, what's his story? That this person
Speaker 1: is is really cost inefficient. So there he's looking for solutions. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he threads to shut the place down. And then you
Speaker 1: guys figure it out absolutely, and they come up with
Speaker 1: an idea under pressure and built the centipede system, which
Speaker 1: is very cost anybody. And then the governor comes in
Speaker 1: and he's of course, he says this, this will be
Speaker 1: the death penalty for you, but in the end he
Speaker 1: understands your situation and then he says, this is exactly
Speaker 1: what America needs. Yeah, like that's yeah, you should check
Speaker 1: it out if you want. It's I think it's the
Speaker 1: best one. Did you have to pay Roberts some real
Speaker 1: money to do the movie? I may can't imagine he's cheap.
Speaker 1: It's not like Hollywood money because there's some millions of
Speaker 1: docause those guys don't come cheap. Definitely. Now, Um, so
Speaker 1: you and I connect on Skype with your sister. Yes, no,
Speaker 1: is she really your sister? Or you say she's your sister,
Speaker 1: it's really she's really like your co producer. And you
Speaker 1: say she's your sister just to further ingrace you yourself
Speaker 1: with that she's my sister. So that kind of takes
Speaker 1: it makes it a little family business. Yeah, it is
Speaker 1: a family business. Yes, she's literally your sister. Yes, okay,
Speaker 1: I take your word for yes. Were you and I
Speaker 1: hook up on Skype? I reach out to you? Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I say, Mike, I just kind of talk to this guy.
Speaker 1: You say to me, Alec, We're going to have a
Speaker 1: group of people who are like a league of extraordinary villains,
Speaker 1: and they're all people who are dedicated. They love human suffering.
Speaker 1: The original concept for Onnania Club. They were all wealthy
Speaker 1: because because so they could fly to like to Mexico
Speaker 1: as an earthquake and see death and destruction and people
Speaker 1: dying and suffering. And then you say to me, I
Speaker 1: want you. I like to play a oncologists, but rather
Speaker 1: than killing the cancer, you are giving people more cancer.
Speaker 1: And to tear a page out of your own life.
Speaker 1: We're going to have your wife be much younger than you,
Speaker 1: very beautiful, very fit, and you are giving your wife's
Speaker 1: the cancer. You're killing your wife. So I'm sitting there
Speaker 1: and I tell my wife this, and my wife like
Speaker 1: literally looks at me. If you saw the look at
Speaker 1: my wife's face, she was like, the whole dream of
Speaker 1: me working with you just died in that one. My
Speaker 1: wife looked at me like, that's never gonna happen. You
Speaker 1: are never to be in within fifty miles of this guy.
Speaker 1: He sounds a complete total nutbag. And I don't even
Speaker 1: want that energy on you when you come home from work.
Speaker 1: So I know you should see him. He's very charming,
Speaker 1: I'm very a brilliant And she says, no, you can't
Speaker 1: do the movie. So then we're talking to say, okay, Alex.
Speaker 1: So here's another idea. One of the people in the
Speaker 1: in the film is going to steal the corpses of celebrities.
Speaker 1: So I want you to come and shoot for one day,
Speaker 1: and you're going to play yourself dead in the casket.
Speaker 1: And the woman started chasing out the joint to figure
Speaker 1: out the width of the door, framed how she's gonna
Speaker 1: get the body out of there, and you play yourself dead,
Speaker 1: And I thought, fantastic, And then I couldn't even make
Speaker 1: that day work. Is all that's still in the movie.
Speaker 1: It's all in the movie. So so it's so the
Speaker 1: League of Extraordinary Villains, you know, Nanny equip as men
Speaker 1: and women. It's you know, I change it to all women,
Speaker 1: that all women, Yes, And that's even scarier because when
Speaker 1: women women who masturbate on the misery of other people
Speaker 1: and then masturbate to suffer. Yeah, exactly, So it's yeah,
Speaker 1: it's the worst human emotion. It's shatter and freud, yes,
Speaker 1: which happens in real life. Well but in the film, yeah, definitely.
Speaker 1: But it's dark and powerful. And have you redefined evil? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I think so, I think so. Yeah. How many of
Speaker 1: the women are in the league? How many actresses did
Speaker 1: you have to give? Five? Five women? And where are
Speaker 1: they from? American American actresses or anybody we would know?
Speaker 1: No big names? No, who's the most well known? Jessica
Speaker 1: Morris is maybe the Jessica Morris is your name? She
Speaker 1: does a series on television and stuff. And was it
Speaker 1: difficult for you to entice people to come do this movie?
Speaker 1: Was very you can imagine because like you, I told
Speaker 1: them the story and so many were offended leave the room. Yeah,
Speaker 1: almost the same. And the smart ones they stay and
Speaker 1: they want to listen more. I love you, I love you.
Speaker 1: The people who understand who are the smart ones? They stay?
Speaker 1: That's the name of your biography out It's an analogy
Speaker 1: for the film going audience and everyone who works with
Speaker 1: you the smart ones they stay so of them aren't
Speaker 1: so smart? And you shoot for how many weeks? We shot?
Speaker 1: Almost a month? Again? A little bit the same where
Speaker 1: in the Hollywood Hills we had this beautiful was the
Speaker 1: budget of the film? But was it? I am not
Speaker 1: allowed to talk about money, but she she's the money girl.
Speaker 1: It's a secret. Well we won't say anything, but we'll
Speaker 1: hold up some fingers, so so I can have an idea.
Speaker 1: This much you can't, okay, how how international Woman of Mystery? Yes,
Speaker 1: but you shoot in l A. No union issues. It's
Speaker 1: all non union, of course. But have you never had
Speaker 1: any of the unions come and bother you because they
Speaker 1: know your name, they know who you were if they
Speaker 1: see and they monitor these things. But there's a casting
Speaker 1: call and you've got American actress, actress going to do
Speaker 1: a film. Sag doesn't show up and and and hassle,
Speaker 1: you know, because the actors has also worked non union,
Speaker 1: so they they specially if they were not in the union.
Speaker 1: Off they are some are how do you call the
Speaker 1: five corps? They can they can do no outside, they
Speaker 1: can do some some non us some percentage of exactly. Now,
Speaker 1: are you glad to get away from the centerpet thing
Speaker 1: that that's done. Yeah, that's done. Four never ever will
Speaker 1: I makes well fast? No? No, but I have so
Speaker 1: many more ideas. My head is exploding. So the on
Speaker 1: Anya Club is so very new, fresh, original. That's what
Speaker 1: I like, and that's where I go for. When she
Speaker 1: saw The Lost Cat I did, she was overwhelmed with
Speaker 1: how powerful it was. It's evil, it's really evil when
Speaker 1: you're watching a movie like Frankenstein. Yes, there's some moments
Speaker 1: of humanity if you will, or decency in the world itself, definitely,
Speaker 1: and in your movies there's none now. And like Martin
Speaker 1: has some humanity, don't you think because he was abused
Speaker 1: as a kid, he has some you you pity him? Said,
Speaker 1: The audience feels for him, not everybody. And there's a
Speaker 1: lot of black humor in my films. A lot of
Speaker 1: people see that, not all of them, Uh, moments of
Speaker 1: decency And yeah, definitely it's humanity, otherwise it won't work.
Speaker 1: I think it's it's it's balancences between humanity, real evil
Speaker 1: and also dark humor. Not everybody sees her, but it's yeah,
Speaker 1: it's it's a difficult road to walk on for an audience.
Speaker 1: I think it's like sex in the City, but then
Speaker 1: on evil steroids, it's it's evil. It's sex in the city. Yeah,
Speaker 1: did the five women, but now there was four and sex. Yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: it's a bonus, a bonus sexless city plus one. She
Speaker 1: enters the group the fifth one, you bringing? You bring
Speaker 1: it in the film? Yeah, definitely. Well that's a wonderful
Speaker 1: setup for maybe a political thriller you can do where
Speaker 1: the doctor is someone who you go to to cure
Speaker 1: cancer and they're only giving you more cancer. That reminds
Speaker 1: me of certain political figures in this country today, wouldn't
Speaker 1: you say? Absolutely? And when they don't have cancer, she
Speaker 1: just tells them Dave cancer just to witness there as well.
Speaker 1: And her she's she's lesbian. Now in the film, she
Speaker 1: has his beautiful girlfriend who is this smoothie drinking, very
Speaker 1: healthy girl, and she hates that she she looks at it.
Speaker 1: She wants to destroy every healthy and in the moment
Speaker 1: she she gets sick, their sex life goes to the roof.
Speaker 1: You can imagine what's your next movie? I have two
Speaker 1: line top and I can't tell about Yeah, but the
Speaker 1: evil films as well, Yeah, the evil Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: did you did? It might not be your genre, though
Speaker 1: it might, it might not be evil enough. I mean
Speaker 1: I have a great idea. I think it's a great
Speaker 1: idea of my idea. Everybody loves it, but nobody wants
Speaker 1: to make it. Where's my Alona? I would love to
Speaker 1: work with you. Stay tuned. I might eventually re redefine
Speaker 1: evil alongside my guest human center being creator Tom six.
Speaker 1: His upcoming film is called The Onnania Club, out early
Speaker 1: two thousand nineteen. This is Alec Baldwin and you're listening
Speaker 1: to Here's the Thing to be co